My Urban Sherpa

Candle Cafe

Candle Cafe is a healthful place for you and the planet.

Candle Cafe is located at 1307 Third Avenue, at 75th Street. They serve lunch and dinner seven days a week.

Centolire Cafe and Panini

Neighborhood locals and museum-goers will now find a ground floor café and Italian sandwich shop in addition to Centolire’s elegant second floor, sunlit dining room with banquet seating overlooking Madison Avenue at 86th Street.  The café menu features soups, salads, Panini, open-faced sandwiches and sweets, all delicately prepared from seasonal ingredients, all under $10 per entrée.

Centolire Café & Panini is open seven days a week from 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM.

Centolire Café & Panini is located at 1167 Madison Avenue,  85th & 86th Street on New York City’s Upper East Side. Telephone 212.734.7711

This Thanksgiving adopt, don’t eat a turkey.

Since 1986, Farm Sanctuary’s annual Adopt-A-Turkey Project has rescued 1000+ turkeys from the dinner table and given them sanctuary on a bucolic farm in Watkins Glen.
Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-A-Turkey Project lets you adopt turkeys this Thanksgiving.

1. Sponsor “adopt” a turkey who lives at our Watkins Glen, New York or Orland, California shelter for farm animals. For a one-time $25 adoption fee, you will receive:

A special Adopt-A-Turkey certificate with color photo of and fun details about your new friend
A Farm Sanctuary membership for one year,
A one-year subscription to Sanctuary, a quarterly newsletter.
As a turkey sponsor, you will not only contribute funds for the care of the rescued animals at our sanctuaries, but will also help us educate and advocate for turkeys, and other farm animals, everywhere. Adopt a turkey online or by phone at 1-888-SPONSOR.

El Quinto Pino

This small tapas bar is delightful in every way. Offering a small selection of lovingly chosen wines, perfectly paired to the most delectable tastes, in a calm and quiet atmosphere where you’ll enjoy your company and the company of others.

401 West 24th Street

212.206.6900

This, and other recommendations for bars, restaurants, and shopping tips are available at MyUrbanSherpa.net and for handheld users at MyUrbanSherpa.mobi.

“A Sealed Fate” tonight ~ AMC Loews 72nd St. & 3rd Ave.

Join Nigel Barker, Mary and Peter Max, and The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International for a screening of “A Sealed Fate” a documentary on the birth of the Harp seals of Canada’s Eastern shore and their imminent deaths weeks later for their fur.
A panel and question-and-answer period to discuss ways we can help end Canada’s cruel seal hunt and speak out for animals killed for their furs.
Tickets are $25 each, all proceeds of which benefit The Humane Society of the United States’ work in celebrating animals and confronting cruelty, thanks to the support of Mary and Peter Max.

Seating begins at 6pm and the 45-minute film rolls promptly at 7pm. A limited amount of tickets may be available at the theater at 6pm, but online ticket purchase is highly encouraged.
November 18, 2008
6:00-9:00 p.m.

AMC Loews Theater
1230 Third Avenue (71st and 72nd Sts)
New York, NY 10021

LEAGUE OF HUMANE VOTERS 7TH ANNIVERSARY

Join the League of Humane Voters of NYC as they celebrate their 7th anniversary at Jivamukti Yoga School, Saturday, November 15th at 8:00PM.

LOHV-NYC will be honoring Senator Frank Padavan, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal and Council Member Peter Vallone, Jr. for all they have done legislatively for animals. LOHV-NYC will also be honoring Edison Properties/Manhattan Mini Storage CEO Steve Nislick for organizing business leaders in the campaign to ban horse-drawn carriages. Celebrity guests include Emmy Award-winner Kristen Johnson and DJ/rapper Princess Superstar.
Tickets/info online at www.humanenyc.org or call 212-889-0303.

What’s Up in this Economy?

Not the Dow but down dog.

Attendance at Yoga studios is the only thing soaring in the current economy, aside from the VIX and the Unemployment rates.

We can recommend no practice more highly than Jivamukti –

Here is a Jivamukti offering tonight, November 10 at 8:30.
SHAKTIPAT MEDITATION AND SATSANG WITH GABRIEL COUSENS, MD
Shaktipat is a transmission of grace that activates the inherent spiritual force, the Shakti Kundalini, when one’s system is ready for it.  An awakened Kundalini is the next evolutionary step of the individual and humanity, and can potentially take one to Liberation.

Satsang, or “Hanging out in the Truth,” follows this meditation, and is spiritual questions and answers.

As a whole, please join this community activation of consciousness and spiritual energy.  it is a way to go deeper personally as well as bring light to every level of your lives.

There will be a short talk on what it means to individually and collectively transition from a culture of death mentality to the consciousness of the Culture of Life and Liberation, and the Sevenfold Path of Creating Peace by Being Peace.

Gabriel Cousens, MD, is the founder of the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center, an Oasis for Awakening in the Patagonia Mountains, AZ.  He is acknowledged as liberated by his two enlightened gurus, Swami Muktananda Paramahansa and Swami Prakashananda.  Gabriel is the author of Creating Peace by Being Peace, Spiritual Nutrition: Six Foundations for Spiritual Life and the Awakening of Kundalini, There Is A Cure For Diabetes, Depression-Free for Life, Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine, and Conscious Eating.  Gabriel has recently developed the Culture of Life Community to support people at the leading edge of consciousness shift and healing the planet.  His work is the founding of projects worldwide that spark spiritual awakening and empowering the fruition of people as our true nature as living sparks of the divine.

New York Wines and Dines

Select New York restaurants share the locavore / ecovore / green approach to dining this week. In Italian this is called cucina della territoria – and it means that you eat what is grown in the region. Around the world, this sanity of enjoying and making the most of what the earth offers by region and season is a practicality of daily life. And here in New York, you’ll find it through the month.

Take advantage of this opportunity to pair fresh local produce with NY’s local wines.

This Banksy never fails

Banksy, the anonymous British street artist, has just opened a little “pet store” at 89 7th Avenue between West 4th and Bleeker Street in the West Village. The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill is actually an astonishing art installation complete with animatronic would-be creatures like fish sticks swimming in a tank and self-dipping chicken nuggets (see photo).

“I wanted to make art that questioned our relationship with animals and the ethics and sustainability of factory farming, but it ended up as chicken nuggets singing,” the mysterious Banksy said (in a statement, of course).

The Village Pet Store and Charcoal Grill will be open to the public daily through Oct. 31.

Kind Green Planet

Kind Green Planet is a NYC-based nonprofit organization dedicated to “educating people about healthy, humane, eco-friendly living. Through grassroots film screenings and workshops, activism and lifestyle coaching, and community programs, we empower people to make personal choices that align with their values of justice, peace, respect for the earth, and compassion for all living beings.”

A fine example of Kind Green Planet’s approach is the “Vegan at Heart” program – to help wanna-be vegans make this crucial lifestyle transition.

(Contact info here)